‘Mostafa Asal is such a talent, but now’s the time to finally grow up’

March 21, 2023 - 1:44pm

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The three-time world champion spoke to Squash Mad on squash’s biggest controversy and says no one is winning from the World No.1’s divisive fan split.

Nick Matthew believes that Egypt’s Mostafa Asal is now faced with a choice of two paths when it comes to the six-week suspension and £2,000 fine he had slapped on him by the PSA on Monday.

The dual punishment relates to Asal’s conduct in the quarter-final and semi-final of the CIB Egyptian Open on September 22 and 24 against Mazen Hesham and Ali Farag respectively.

In the former the World No.1 was hit with a conduct stroke at 9-9 in the second game for making contact with his opponent via an elbow. In the latter Asal conceded four conduct strokes, with three of these coming in the decisive fourth game which he lost – and the first for an excessive swing at 6-10 down in the second game which he also lost.

In January 2022, Asal accepted a two-month suspension from the PSA, following on-court disciplinary matters while he was disqualified from the US Open last Autumn after opponent Lucas Serme was hospitalised.

But now Matthew, a former World No.1 and multiple major winner, says Asal is going to have to make a choice about which direction his future faces.

The Yorkshireman said: “There are two paths for Asal to go down and he has to go one way or another because it can’t keep going on like this. I certainly hope he chooses the latter, which is he swallows his pride, bites his tongue, puts his ego to one side and gets his head down and performs.

“If he chooses the other and plays the victim he will garner a lot of support going that way but if he ‘mans up’ and accepts his share of the blame, admits he doesn’t agree with the ban but focuses on those things he can control he can come back from this. Now it’s time to grow up and man up.

“If I was in his corner I would be saying to him: ‘I don’t care whether you win or lose, we will have six months where you just play squash. We are going to clear the ball, get you fitter so you don’t have these stoppages and you are going to become the best player in the world playing clean squash.’ I would challenge Mostafa to do that.

“For me I just think wouldn’t it be all the more enjoyable if he were to win without all of this circus? He has just got to be the bigger man and forget about the conspiracy theory that everyone is against him and thinking that it is always someone else’s fault.

“I was brought up to always look in the mirror first as you can’t just blame everyone else, especially if it keeps happening. If it happens once or twice then it could be down to other variables but happening time and time again you have to ask what is the constant theme and that is obviously Mostafa.”

Matthew believes that Asal has already recently shown an ability to use adversity as a motivation and he said: “I’d be saying to him: ‘Let’s use this all as a motivation like he did when he played (Victor) Crouin at Canary Wharf and used what he’d been saying, which clearly Mostafa did not like, as a motivation.

“He just out played Crouin and I’d be asking for that mindset every time, clean squash, no stoppages and just beat the other guys because he is good enough if he puts his mind to it.

“Then if he loses a match it’s because he wasn’t quite good enough, not because of the ref, his opponent, the crowd or the PSA and this whole witch hunt.”

As he admitted, the three-time world champion believes the whole situation is both sad and far from a good look for squash when the sport is once again desperate to gain Olympic inclusion.

He said: “I am just sad for the sport and I’m almost past having an opinion. It is a case of ‘Yes, Mostafa is out of order at times and must be punished’ but by continuing to ban him you are perpetuating the cycle and making it worse. You’ve got to get in front of it at some point or do we go round and round forever and make him walk away?

“The interesting thing is I had a quick canvas on social media and you’ve got half the people saying it’s a disgrace and there is a conspiracy theory against Asal and then the rest going it’s not severe enough of a ban.

“So that sums it up perfectly as there is no one in between but people swaying wildly from one end of the spectrum to the other and it’s hugely divisive and I am getting bored of it. So it’s not a good situation and no one is winning from this.”

Matthew added: “As a fan I want him to play the attractive attacking squash he is capable of and cut out all the shit. He is such a talent and I want him to just come back and play his squash.

https://i0.wp.com/squashmad.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Asal-Hammamy-HK-Champions.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 — Nick Matthew wants squash to do the talking for Asal

“But last week at Canary Wharf I sat and watched two massively contrasting semi-finals and in the first (Asal v Joel Makin) by the start of the fifth game I’d lost track of what day it was to be honest and I couldn’t give a monkey’s who won I just wanted the match off before Joel made a great come back.

“Then in the (Paul Coll v Ali Farag) match, after I’d dusted myself off and gone for a bite to eat and beer to refresh my brain, I could have watched it all day and it was a fantastic spectacle.”

However Matthew is in no doubt that the whole punishment and appeal process must be speeded up.

He said: “I guess the process of your appeals takes a bit of time and I don’t know how the appeal processes work, but I do know due diligence has to be done and all the facts and evidence have to be gathered and that is something that can’t be rushed.

“But my knee jerk reaction, as I don’t really know in this case about these isolated instances back in September, is it does seem like the appeal process takes too long.

“It is March so for me something that happened at ToC in January should be dealt with now, not something that happened last Autumn, so that could all be speeded up.”

The post ‘Mostafa Asal is such a talent, but now’s the time to finally grow up’ appeared first on Squash Mad.

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‘Mostafa Asal is such a talent, but now’s the time to finally grow up’

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